Lavoie Dominates Round 2 To Lead U.S. Open
Lavoie Dominates Round 2 To Lead U.S. Open
A day after competing on the incredibly difficult flat pattern, Francois Lavoie absolutely dominated the second pattern to take the lead at the U.S. Open.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. – A day after competing on the incredibly difficult flat pattern, Francois Lavoie absolutely dominated the second pattern to take the lead at the U.S. Open.
Lavoie, who won the 2016 U.S. Open, executed a perfect game plan to shoot 368 over for eight games in the second round of qualifying at Victory Lanes.
His 16-game total of 3,579, a 223.69 average, has him leading the event heading into Round 3. All qualifying and match play rounds of the event are being broadcast live on FloBowling.
Bowling on a 41-foot pattern (29.93 mL, ratios: 1:1.73 right, 1:1.37 left), Lavoie got out of the gates with a 225 game but then steamrolled to games of 265, 290, 258 and 251. He closed out his day with games of 227, 207 and 245.
Results: U.S. Open Qualifying Round 2
“The first game was the trickier one but after that things really fell into place,” Lavoie said. “I didn’t really suffer through any major trouble or anything like that. I just followed the moves and everything made sense for the rest of the day.”
Lavoie detailed his specific game plan in this interview with FloBowling and said everything just clicked in the second round.
“I don’t know if there was a secret, it was just a really, really good day at work,” Lavoie said. “I just had a good game plan. I worked together with the Storm team and our moves were the right ones all the time. Execution was good, everything felt good, the moves were good and you can’t really ask for much more than that.”
Lavoie and the rest of the field will return for another round of qualifying Sunday to determine the top 36 players who will advance in the event. The advancing players will bowl eight final qualifying games Monday with the top 24 moving into match play.
First-round leader Jason Belmonte treaded water in the second round. He entered the day plus 177 but only got to plus 195 by the end of the round, finishing with a 16-game total of 3,395 to place him third.
Anthony Simonsen put up a big total on the same squad as Lavoie to jump into second place with 3,414. Simonsen totaled 1,846 in the second round, which was second only to Lavoie on the day.
Sean Rash sits in fourth place with 3,392, while Ronnie Russell and Bill O’Neill are tied for fifth with 3,391.
PWBA player Verity Crawley occupies the cut position after two rounds as she’s in 36th place with 3,249, a 203.06 average.